Cranberry Christmas | 2020 Christmas Movies

When I first read the title Cranberry Christmas, I thought it was going to be yet another movie about a baker. But this time she loves cranberry cookies! Well, I was wrong.

Dawn (Nikki DeLoach) and Gabe (Benjamin Ayres) own a lifestyle company called Cranberry Lane. While the company has always been run as a “husband and wife” company, their marriage is on the rocks. In order to keep their business and the town’s Christmas festival running, Dawn lies on national television about the state of their marriage. But when TV host Pamela (Marci T. House) brings the show to their small Maine town, the couple is forced to cancel their time apart and focus on their relationship.

I admit that I usually go into these movies expecting them to be boring at best. Cranberry Christmas, however, was a cute movie about problems that marriages can have when a couple is trying to grow a business. Dawn kept secrets from Gabe and Gabe kept secrets from Dawn, all in an attempt to not hurt the other or let the other have their dream. At the same time, Pamela is trying to pressure Dawn (even though she claims she’s not pressuring her) into making a major decision extremely quickly. These are things that felt real. More real than any holiday movie I have watched.

Should you watch it? Yes. Yes, you should. It probably won’t be an annual favorite but it is a 2020 Hallmark movie favorite. What more could we ask for this year?

One Royal Holiday | 2020 Christmas Movies

Do you like royal families? Does anyone like royal families? The people that write Christmas movies must think that people adore royalty. Why else would we have so many of royalty-related movies?

Anna (Laura Osnes) is a nurse in Boston. As she is getting ready to drive home for the holidays, she comes across a mother and son stranded due to an impending blizzard. She offers to let them stay at her family’s bed and breakfast in Connecticut. Only after they get to the B&B does she find out that they are the royal family of Galwick. Anna shows Queen Gabriella (Victoria Clark) and Prince James (Aaron Tveit) how they celebrate Christmas in her hometown.

Is there a way they could make these movies a little different? It’s always a foreign prince and a common American girl. The prince is cold and unwilling to change while the girl has to figure out how to warm his heart with Christmas spirit. The big difference here is that the royals fall in love with the little town and don’t want to return to their country. They have to return, of course, because the prince has to give an annual speech.

Of the prince-related Christmas movies I have watched, this one is pretty darn boring. You could watch the Netflix series A Christmas Prince…that wasn’t too bad. The Princess Switch is still royalty-related, even though it doesn’t have a prince. There’s just better Christmas movies featuring royalty, if you really need that royal fix. It’s OK to skip this one. You aren’t missing much.

A Crafty Christmas Romance | 2020 Christmas Movies

I used to think that Hallmark Channel had the worst Christmas romance movies. In the past, that was true. This year, however, it’s Lifetime that is letting me down.

Mandy (Nicola Posener) owns a hobby/craft shop. Inside an old book that someone put in their toy/book drive box, Mandy finds an old letter with a rare coin. With the help from a local contractor, Jonah (Brad Johnson), she sets out to return the items to their original owner.

I was quick to call Christmas with the Darlings the best movie of the season. Well, A Crafty Christmas Romance may be the worst. I guess it’s a good thing I watched them back-to-back. There are so many problems with this one that I’m not sure where to start….

The title of the movie has nothing to do with the plot. I think that this may not have been the original title of it. The movie’s IMDB page has a graphic calling it “Crafting Christmas,” which also has nothing to do with the plot. Sure, Mandy owns a shop where people can craft things and Mandy and Jonah craft an ugly sweater together but that is it. They don’t use the crafts to do anything to find the coin’s owner.

Talking about Mandy and Jonah, they are such boring people. They are dull, their romance is dull, even their jobs are dull. There’s not a drop of chemistry between them and this is another movie where they shoehorn the Big Kiss in with zero reason for it. Apparently Jonah wished that Mandy would fall in love with him after knowing her for a whole day. Maybe he should get to know the woman before asking her to be head over heels with him.

So, the whole premise of the movie is Mandy and Jonah searching for the author of this letter. Of course, no one has any information about it. The two of them spend the whole freaking movie reading old high school yearbooks in an attempt to maybe find someone with the same name as the author. Sounds fascinating, right? Wouldn’t you want to watch a movie of people reading books?

Please don’t watch A Crafty Christmas. I’m sorry if you’ve already sat through it. No one should be tortured like that.

Christmas with the Darlings | 2020 Christmas Movies

The movie is titled Christmas with the Darlings but the family’s name is actually Darlington. Did they rename the characters and forget to change the movie title? Or maybe they didn’t realize the family is Darlington and not Darling….

Jessica (Katrina Law) is the executive assistant for Charles Darlington (Steve Bacic), the CEO of the Darlington family company. With his brother Max (Carlo Marks), Charles has taken custody of his orphaned nieces (Islie Hirvonen and Madeline Hirvonen) and nephew (Anthony Bolognese). When Jessica learns that the children are to be sent to boarding school for Christmas, she offers to take care of the children at the Darlington mansion instead. Max, infamous for being irresponsible, steps up to help her.

Christmas with the Darlings is what The Christmas Aunt wanted to be. Jessica does various holiday activities with them but none of it feels cheesy or forced. Instead of making paper snowflakes, they decorate the trees outside the mansion with birdseed ornaments so the animals have something to eat. They drink a lot of hot chocolate, they work on a Christmas puzzle…it is wholesome holiday activities that all of them seem to thoroughly enjoy.

On top of that, the actors have great chemistry. Granted, the two sisters are actual sisters in real life. Beyond that, I could believe that Jessica actually wanted to spend time with the children and that she actually liked Max, even when he was being goofy. And I could feel Max’s frustration at being classified as the “irresponsible” brother when he was so much more than that.

it is still very early in the Christmas movie season but I think this may be it. This may be the best Hallmark Christmas movie this season. So, yes, go watch it. Watch it more than once if you like. Then maybe watch it again next year. I don’t think you will regret it.

Jingle Bell Bride | 2020 Christmas Movies

Christmas weddings aren’t a new thing, especially in movies. Jingle Bell Bride isn’t actually about a bride though. It’s about her wedding planner.

Jessica (Julie Gonzalo) is a wedding planner for a famous singer, Renee (Donna Benedicto), who is a bit of a Bridezilla. Two weeks before her wedding, Renee insists that Jessica find the rare jingle bell flower for her. The only place that currently has this flower is a remote town in Alaska. Can Jessica make it back to New York City before Renee’s wedding?

While Jingle Bell Bride has a very stupid premise, the movie itself isn’t that bad. I wish there was a different reason for Jessica to go to Alaska. The best parts of the movie were when Jessica was spending time with the townsfolk. Everything else felt crammed in, including the parts with her sister (Alison Araya) and niece (Pietra Castro). I think I would have liked it more if Jessica was simply visiting the town. She could still step in to help when the town’s festival ball loses their venue at the last minute but she wouldn’t be held back by her event planning boss.

They could also give the jingle bell flower more meaning. That way Matt (Ronnie Rowe) would have a reason to spend more time with Jessica. Sure, he spends time with her now but the reasons feel forced. He only spends time with her because she’s stuck staying at his family’s house since there is no hotel in town. I think I would have liked it more if Matt had a little more passion for the flowers that could have shown through.

If you have the ability to look past all of the stupid wedding planning parts in the movie (there aren’t that many really), then this is definitely worth a watch. And if you watched The Christmas Yule Blog, you’ll recognize Alison Araya as Caroline’s boss. It’s the circle of Christmas movies.

The Christmas Aunt | 2020 Christmas Movies

Seriously? Seriously?? Christmas movie plots have reached a new low.

The Christmas Aunt is about an aunt - Rebecca (Keshia Knight Pulliam) - returning home to Nashville in order to care for her niece, Maggie (Nyla Alleyne), and her nephew, Dan (Gabriel Jacob-Cross), for two weeks leading up to Christmas.

Yes, that is the entire plot. The kids aren’t orphaned or anything. Their parents just went on vacation to Africa. And their grandmother broke her leg so she’s not supposed to drive or stand for long periods of time. Yup.

Uuuugggh, this movie was so dumb. The plot was dumb, the conflict was dumb, the acting was dumb…

When I saw the title, I was hoping that this was some magical Christmas thing. Like the kids were having some sort of problem…it could even be the parents still going away on vacation…and a magical Mary Poppins type character came in and cheered everyone up. I guess making snowflakes out of paper and glitter or baking cookies could be cheerful. It would be a lot more fun if the magical auntie made the snowflakes dance in the air or the cookies decorate themselves or something.

Instead, we get Rebecca who can’t make up her mind whether she wants to date her childhood best friend, Drew (Jarod Joseph). One minute she’s holding hands with him and giggling at everything he says. The next minute she’s reaming him for something he did years ago. What the hell, girl? Make up your mind.

Then there’s her job. When she suddenly left Los Angeles to go take care of her family, she promised that she would work remotely. We see her working, like, twice? And she feels bad both times. They also agreed that Rebecca would fly home the day after Christmas. Then suddenly the client decides to fly to LA the day before and she’s expected to just drop everything? I know that there are tough bosses out there that don’t care about their employees’ families but this was a little much.

Don’t waste your time with The Christmas Aunt. Even the boring Christmas movies were better than this one.

A Very Charming Christmas Town | 2020 Christmas Movies

How many Christmas tropes can they fit into one movie? I think Lifetime’s A Very Charming Christmas Town is trying to hit every single trope possible.

Aubrey (Natalie Hall) is a former-songwriter-turned-blogger. She visits Danish-style town, Solvang, CA, to see if they really are the “Most Christmassy Town in the USA.” Even though she is a bit of a brat, Sawyer (Jon Prescott) takes on the challenge of showing the magic of Solvang.

OK. Let’s count off the tropes this movie crams in: A musician (check, she’s a somewhat famous songwriter), a blogger (check, she stopped writing songs to write lifestyle blog posts),a woman loving sugar (check, she practically drools at every cookie, candy, and pastry she sees), a business owner (check, this time it’s the male lead!)…I think maybe that covers all of them. Poor Aubrey really does feel like a checklist of characteristics instead of an actual person.

In case you didn’t know, Solvang is a real town in southern California. Usually these Christmas movies center around a fake town with a wintery/Christmas-sounding name. While I’m not positive the movie was actually filmed in Solvang, there were some nods to the town. At least that gave it a little dose of reality.

Uuugghh…I don’t know what to say about AVCCT. The characters were terrible cardboard cutouts (with the exception of Laurel played by Kelley Jakle), the plot sucked, the conflict was unbelievable, even the resolution was dull. The only good parts were Kelley Jakle’s singing and the town itself. So I guess do a slow fast forward (not the super speedy one!) so you can see the town and stop about ten minutes from the end so you can hear Jakle’s one song. That’s the best this movie will get.

A Nashville Christmas Carol | 2020 Christmas Movies

It’s A Christmas Carol but in Nashville! Different, right?

Vivian (Jessy Schram) is a television producer/director that rarely takes time off. She’s too busy planning a Christmas special when she is interrupted by the ghost of her dead mentor, Marilyn (Wynonna Judd). Marilyn sends the Christmas spirits Vivian’s way in order to get her life back on track.

I’m generally not a big fan of country music. But I do like good music. Sara Evans as Belinda and RaeLynn as Alexis knock it out of the park. I could see myself watching the Christmas special with them. Especially when they were singing together. The rest of the show….

We’re all familiar with A Christmas Carol - the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future visit Scrooge to show him his terrible ways. A Nashville Christmas Carol spends a little too much time with the spirit of Christmas past, who goes by Pat (Kix Brooks), and completely abandons the spirit of Christmas-yet-to-come. That was a little disappointing. I wanted to see hints of Vivian getting together with love interest/former best friend Gavin (Wes Brown). Instead, we get a “The future is what you make it” type of speech from Marilyn.

I think maybe the worst part was that Vivian’s past was not all that exciting. We hear that Vivian and her sister, Georgia (Sarah Borne), grew up without their mother but we don’t know why their mother is gone. They just say “she left.” A lot of the Christmas Past time was spent at a Christmas party where Gavin got the job of his dreams but Vivian thought he kicked her to the curb. Of course, Vivian was wrong and….blah blah blah. Once again, these are conflicts that could have been resolved if someone opened their mouth and said something. It doesn’t make a good conflict.

Honestly? You should skip A Nashville Christmas Carol. There are better versions of Dickens’ book that are actually worth your time. The Muppets Christmas Carol is the absolute best. Watch that one instead.

The Christmas Yule Blog | 2020 Christmas Movies

Ah, blogging. A lot of Christmas movies are about bloggers nowadays. I mean, didn’t you know that bloggers are living this amazing life traveling all around the world? Oh, right. They’re not.

Caroline (Sara Canning) is a travel blogger/vlogger/writer. Her editor sends her to Carte De Amor in New Mexico to do a 12 Days of Christmas blog….and to find her Christmas spirit again.

First off, I don’t really understand what Caroline’s job is supposed to be. In the beginning of the movie, there’s an office and a staff and they are acting like it’s a magazine. But then Caroline and her boss, Camilla (Alison Araya), keep referring to her piece as a blog. But then she’s actually posting vlogs and pictures to the website? A magazine writer is fine. A blogger is fine. A vlogger is fine. Just pick one. And if she’s going to be a vlogger, make her videos interesting. She would be better at her job.

Next, there’s a whole section in the movie based on the fact that Caroline doesn’t have clothes with her? Again, she’s a travel writer. She knew she was going to New Mexico. Why didn’t she research what the weather would be so she could pack appropriately? Is it normal for a travel writer (who I can almost guarantee is not super rich) to have to buy new clothes whenever she gets somewhere? Do better, Lifetime.

Other than that, The Christmas Yule Blog is starting to head in the right direction. They show a variety of interesting traditions celebrated by the people of color in the town. Instead of an ugly Christmas sweater contest, there is an ugly Christmas poncho contest. (Not my favorite example, to be honest.) The town is lit up by luminarias, which are actually gorgeous on screen. And there are a few Mexican food references thrown in. I would have loved to have a more….New Mexican feel to it though. It seemed to be missing that…thing…to make it a traditional Mexican Christmas.

Would I recommend it? It’s not a terrible movie, by far, but it’s also not very interesting. Even the Christmas romance in boring. Does Oscar (Zak Santiago) only speak in monotone? B.O.R.I.N.G. If you’re really interested in seeing the pseudo-Mexican traditions, I would say to give it a watch. Just be warned that you might fall asleep in the middle.

Christmas Tree Lane | 2020 Christmas Movies

Music, nostalgia, and Christmas. What more could a Christmas movie want? Oh, right, romance.

Alicia Witt plays Meg, the daughter of a family-owned music store on Christmas Tree Lane. Sadly, all of the stores on the lane are being pushed out to make room for office buildings. Meg brings all of the merchants together to try to save their stores.

Christmas Tree Lane is a little odd for a Hallmark Christmas movie. (I think they are sticking all of their unusual movies over on the Movies & Mysteries channel.) You could literally remove Nate (Andrew Walker), the love interest, and there would be very little impact on the story. I found it quite refreshing. It was nice that the movie focused on the history of the lane and the merchants trying to save their livelihoods.

I also liked that the movie featured musicians that still enjoy what they do. Meg had a little difficulty with her songwriting but I think it was more of a writer’s block type of thing than a losing passion for it thing. She still loved teaching music and convincing her student, Kari (Malaika Guttoh), to perform at the Christmas Eve concert. Meg even performed a song she wrote!

This was such a sweet movie. I would have liked to have a little more nostalgia in it…maybe a few scenes showing what the area was like 100 years ago instead of just talking about it…but not having that doesn’t ruin anything. And Alicia Witt is such a great actress, I think I would recommend any of her work. In short, this is definitely worth watching.